Strip-feeding device



Sept. 21 1926.

R. MC'CLENATHEN STRIP FEEDING DEVICE Fild June 22. 1923 2 l Sheets-Sheet 1 R. MGCLENATHEN STRIP FEEDING DEVICE v Spf. 21 1926.

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 2l, 1926.

UNITED sTATEs 1,600,240 PATENT A OFFICE ROBERT MCCLENATHEN, or FROS'TBURG, MARYLANn'nssIGNoRfTo THE KELLY- SPRINGFIELD TIRE COMPANY, or CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND, A CORPORATION,

OF NEW JERSEY.

STRIP-FEEDING IDEiVICILl Application filed .Tune 22,

rlhis invention is particularly adapted to feeding of a flexible strip into or onto an article with which said strip is to become identified, either as a temporary adjunct in an intermediate step in a manufacturing or assembling operation, or, in permanent association therewith.

The preferred embodiment yof this invention has been illustrated asa mechanism for' inserting flaps int'o the casings of the conventional open bead automobile tire, but, of course, its application is not limited to this particular operation.

A flap is usually furnished with the tire casing, being inserted therein at the place of manufacture; and the assembled casing con taining the flap then suitably wrapped, individually, or in bundles, for shipment. The universal practice followed in inserting iiaps is merely the crude hand method, there being no machine device for this purpose. In considering the fact that it is not uncommon for a single factory to turnout upwards of ten thousand casings per day, with flaps inserted by hand, it is apparent that` a large number of operative must be retained to perform this unskilled routine task,V and that the expense of this is vcryconsiderable.

Having regard to the expense and general ineificiency attending the hand insertion methods it has become the object of my invention to provide a new and novel device for mechanically inserting flaps in tire cas- Y ings or for performing analogous operations,

whereby the operation will be reduced to an eiicient and economical basis. Y

Fig. 1, is a side View of my device, showing a flap being mechanically inserted, and a spare, empty, casing on the feed rack, awaiting its flap insertion.

Fig. 2, is a section through the plane II-II of Fig. 1, showing the chief features of the flap inserting element. g Y

Fig. 3, is a general top view of the entire machine in the planeIII-fHI of Fig. l1.

FigJi, is a side view of a portion of the front part of the machine, showing a casing in operating position, and the saine (in broken lines) as it is being expelled from the machine uponthe completion ofthe iap in, serting process. Y

Fig. 5, is a sectional elevation in the plane V-V of Fig. 4, showing, particularly, the method of removing the flap inserting ele- 1923. Serial No. 647,046.

ment from the casing prior toexpelling the casing from the machineafter the flap has been positioned therein.

Fig. 6, is an enlarged elevation through'the VV guide and traction roller of the flap inserting' element, showing the flap being shot into the casing. i i

VThe basic conception of the devicejis that an empty casing is rolled froma suitable?,

source of supply onto a mechanism which automatically centers and retains `it in rota# tion in a vertical plane. While thusgretained in a rotating state, an operator.

into the casing by the now active inserting device. As soon as the flap is run out of its inserting means into the casing, the operator throws the said'means intothe inoperative position and quickly eXpels the casing fromV the rotating mechanism-the entire opera-4 tion is thus terminated and ready for repetie` tion.

In view of the simplicity of this "devicel and the clearness. of the drawings, which would enable one casually familiar with the art to construct such a machine, only a briefdescription of" details will be lintroduced herein.

Numeral llrepresents the tray upon which the flaps 2 are stocked in readiness for insertion yinto the casing 3, oneofwhich (see Fig. 1) is in reserve on therunway 4, the other being in operating condition on the machine. f ,y ,i

When inserting a -flap,-the casing 3, is

vplaced upon two. spool drums 5 one of which is directdriven by a motor 6 operat-V ing a belt 7 driving a pulley @iy attached to a counter shaft 9. A second' pulley 10 on, shaft 9 carries a belt l1, which passes over a pulley 12 (see Fig-3) faston'one of the spindles 13 of the spool drums 5." Havingaccounted for direct drive of one of the drums 5, it is notedy that vcounterpart pullcys' 14 fast on spindles 13 are made toro.- tate together and inthe same direction by a belt 15, passing' over two idlers 16, located midway between the axes of the said spindles and well above them, onek over the other. The diameters of the pulleys 14 and their relative axial spacing being` such, in relation to the'diameter and location of the lower one of the idlers 16, that the belt 15 forms a closing angle toward the idler 16 (the purpose of which will be made ap parent).

The flap inserting element comprises a shaft 17 having a fixed Vpulley 18 on one end for rotation purposes and a fixed iiap-inserting wheel 19 at the other. The wheel 19 being spool-shaped and preferably havving a rubber friction lining 2O to better draw in the flap 2.

The guide head 21 of the flap inserting element has a rounded portion 22 adapted to facilitate its entrance into and separate the casing beads preparatory to running in the flap; also a slot 23 of U shape is provided to accommodate the normal original form of the flap. -ldithin the head 21 is an idler roll 24, suitably journaled and contacting with the rubber facing 2O on the wheel 19.

`It bei-ng obvious that rotation of 19, when a flap is introduced within the slot 23, will pinch the flap between the facing 20 Vand the periphery of roll 24 whereby the latter serves as a support and rolling surface for the flap in `lits passage through the guide head into the casing see Fig. 6).

r[he entire flap inserting assembly ele-- men-t may be swung, pendulum-fashioin' about a journal 25 suitably bracketed to the main frame of the ina-chine, whereby 'the head 21 may be forced within the casing at an appropriate time and removed when its worlr of running in the flap is completed. (See Figs. 4 and 5.) It will become eviident that the iiap inserting head becomes' active when the assembly is swung from the oft 0r up position toward the tire casing, for the pulley'lS will take Ymotion as it Vcontacts with the two moving portions of the belt 15 (clearly shown in the draw ings). A lhandle 26 is vprovided to facilitate 'the operation of this element and a suitable connterbalance arm 27 is provided on the end of the rocking shaft 28 appropriately associated withv the swinging feature of the assembly) whereby the entire moving portion is in approximate balance but tending to remain in the off position until manually pulled into the casing.L

From the foregoing it becomes evident that once a casing is lin position on thev rotating drums 5, and steadied therein by the pendant idler guide rol-ler 29,' all theoperator has to do is to pull the free end Zof a flap from the 'tray 1, push it partial-ly into the slot 23 of the head 21, then pull down handle 26 `whereby the `pulley 18 rises witl in the iniiuence of the belt 1-5 and' the rotafting elements 19 and 24 within the head grasp and quickly inserts the flap. Thereafter the operator merely throws off the element and expels the casing as now described.

A pulley 30 (see Figs. 3, 4 and 5) is fixed on shaft 13 and an impeller strap 31 par* tially surrounds this pulley. One end of this strap is attached to the swinging arm of a casing expeller 32 having an angle portion reaching under the tread of Va casing in position on the drums 5, but normally out of contact therewith. looselyV journaled on the shaft 13 and is unaffected by its rotation. The other end of the strap 31 is attached to` an arm of bell crank lever 33, journaled at 34, and carrying on one extremity a contact roller 35 which tract on the pulley 30 whereby the end ofV the strap attached to expeller 32 is suddenly Yjerked with the result that the ano'le portion of the expeller snaps sharply up against the tread of the casing (see Fig. displacing it from the drums 5r (as shownin` broken lines on Fig. 4). In order that the expeller 32 shall n-ot fall past dead center on the iup-stroke, a resilient limit stop 3S 0f conventional design and balanced ,byH a spring 39 hasbeen provided {thefunction being clearly indicated in Figs. 1, 4 and 5). itli the expulsion of the casing and release of the treadle 36 the belt 31 is slaclred and the related mechanism relaxes to thev inoperative position.

`VVith the mechanism described it is ap-k parent that the operation of inserting flaps is rendered mor-e -efiicient than the present hand method. In fact, the whole operation is now semi-automatic, absolutely accurate, and the physical exertion on the part ofthe operator made so slight that uns illed help can be used to advantage; releasing many surplus employees, at present engaged in hand insertion, to higher usefulness.

Having now described the preferred eine bodiinent of my device, what I claim is.:

1. A device of the character described, comprising, inea-ns for rotating a `tire casing, a common means for locally spreading and mechanically introducing a flap within the said casing, land Vassociated driving means for rotating the casing and operating the flap-introducing means.

2. A device of the' character Idescribed comprising, means for rotating and establishing a definite rotating center for a tire introducing means operative or inoperative at will.

3. A device of the character Vdescribed comprising, means for rotating a tire casing, means for mechanically introducing a flap within the said casing, and means, for eX- pelliiig the casing beyond the influence of the flap-introducing means.

4. A device of the character described comprising, meansv for rotating a tire casing in a fixed rotating position, means for mechanically introducing a flap within the said casing, means for rendering the flapintroducing means operative or inoperative at will, and means for mechanically expelling the casing beyond the influence of the flap-introducing means during an inoperative period thereof.

5. In a flap-inserting machine, the combination with means for rotating a tire casing, of a common locally spreading element and mechanical ilap-inserter adapted to linearly feed a flap into the rotating casing in the direction of rotation thereof.

6. In a flap-inserting machine, the combination with means for rotating a tire casing and means for mechanically expelling sai-d casing at will, of a mechanical flapinserter adapted to linearly feed a flap into kthe rotating casing in the direction of rotation thereof, said flap-inserter having means whereby it may be rendered operative or inoperative at will.

7. A comprising, in combination, means for positioning an article into which a strip is to be fed, a strip-feeding means adapted to be render-ed operative or inoperative at will,

device of the character described means for attaining relative movement between the article and the 1 strip-feeding means, and means for expelling the article beyond the influenceiof the strip-feeding means.

8. A ldevice of' the character described,l

9. A device of the character .describedf comprising a strip-impelling unit having a wedge-like cross sectional contour defining its lower ,si-de adapted to enter between and progressively .separate the beads of a tire casing, a strip guiding and deforming means within said unit defining a cross sectionally curved contour with the apex thereof reversed with respect to that of the wedge-like contour of the said unit, and impelling means associated with said unit for forcibly feeding a guided and deformed strip there through.

10. A device of the character described, comprising a strip-impelling unit adapted to enter between and progressively separate the beads'of a tire casing, strip guiding `means within said unit, impelling means associated with said unit adapted to feed forward a strip confined'within said guiding' means, and means for rendering said impelling means operative or inoperative. Y

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

ROBERT MCCLENATHEN. 

